Page 21 - Porsche Decades sample pages

1990s
Dauer 962s finished first and third at Le Mans in 1994.
1994 Le Mans
Customer and racer Jochen Dauer approached Porsche with the idea of making a street-legal version of the 962 in 1993. At first, Porsche was not interested. That was until Norbert Singer realized that a single street-legal car could open the door for a Le Mans entry in the GT1 category. Although the ACO said that converting a race car to a street car was outside the spirit of GT1, the Dauer 962 was eventually allowed a one-time entry at Le Mans in 1994.
Porsche and Dauer worked to prepare a two-car team with an all-star driver lineup. The car was different from a standard 962 because it was required to have a flat bottom, narrower
rear wheels and a minimum weight of 1,000 kilograms. In a hodge-podge year at Le Mans, Porsche hoped to win the LM- GT category. However, when the leading LMP1 Toyota C90 SARD team suffered gear selection problems in the final 90 minutes, the 962 driven by Hurley Haywood, Mauro Baldi and Yannick Dalmas won the race overall. Haywood became the only driver to win Le Mans with and without chicanes on the Mulsanne Straight (the chicanes were added in 1990 when the FIA limited straight sections on approved circuits to two kilometers maximum). Dauer Sportwagen went on to sell a small number of street-going 962s.
PORSCHE POINTS
tEarly 1990s assembly of the Mercedes 500E and Audi Avant RS 2 Sportwagen made use of the facility originally used to build the 959.
tWhen Porsche won Le Mans in 1994, Mauro Baldi became the 100th individual driver to achieve overall victory in the 24 Hour race.
tIn addition to Dauer, ex-Porsche factory driver Vern Schuppan and tuning firm Koenig also built street-legal versions of the 962.
tBoth the 993 and 996 Type numbers were intended to indicate the year in which production would begin for those versions of the 911.
PORSCHE DECADES 1990s 233